The ban came earlier this week after a court ruled the government could classify the Shia group as a "terrorist organization."

Cardinal Onaiyekan of Abuja decried the move, saying it sets a dangerous precedent for all religious minorities.

Speaking to Vatican Radio, Cardinal Onaiyekan said the government crackdown is not only unjust, it is a move that sets a worrying precedent for religious freedom in the country.

“Nobody is safe: today it’s the Shias, tomorrow it could be us Catholics too,” he said.

Cardinal Onaiyekan explained that recently, for the government in Nigeria, the question of Shia Muslims has become an issue. 

He said IMN followers have been holding protests to demand the release of their leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky, who has been detained in prison for the last four years.

Various tribunals and courts, he noted, have ordered that he be released, and the government has refused to obey the courts’ order.

Daily protests

He said the Shias have been holding almost daily protests in the streets of Abuja for over a month.

“From my own understanding, the protests were always peaceful and we never saw them armed,” he said.

And yet, he said, government soldiers and police have attacked them with arms, rubber bullets and tear-gas canisters.

News outlets said at least 20 members of the group were killed over the past week during the demonstrations.

Catholics are concerned

As for us Catholics, the Cardinal said, we are deeply concerned about this development: “If the government can influence a Court to declare a religious group proscribed, then nobody is safe – today it is the Shias, tomorrow it might be us Catholics too.”

Noting there has not yet been an official response by the Catholic Church to the situation, he said he expects it is soon to come: “Personally my own position is that we cannot keep quiet and allow this kind of thing to keep going on”.

“If the Shias break the law of the land they should be held accountable,” the Cardinal concluded, “but to simply proscribe them, it is going too far.”

Source: vaticannews.va